The Modo modeler

#1 Modo is an excellent subd modeling package with an amazing interface. It is, however, for static modeling. Not animation. It does allow rather seemless moveing between Lightwave and Maya, though. Of course, you can also export 3DS and OBJ files for loading into Milkshape or using the OBJ2DTS utility.

EDIT: Screwed up and said "static animation". Heh.

#2 I evaluated modo for awhile. it's pretty impressive, has some features that are better then LW, but then LW has some features not supported in modo, like subpatched texturing that is new as of LW 8.2.... has better visual quality in the view ports.... mostly fancy lighting. You can download modo and get an Eval license.

#3 Keep in mind that modo is just a "different" workflow. I am an XSI user, evaluated modo for about a month, and found that I still liked using XSI since it had most of the features modo does, and I found that I could work MUCH faster in XSI and I had a few more tools at my disposal.

Modo is VERY PRETTY and I was first drawn to it for that reason, but in the end, I found it had a few great features but that the overall package was slowing me down. (I do however still sneak back into it every now and again to do some basic tasks since it is a fantastic GUI :)

There is no right or wrong way to create 3D art. Everyone goes about it differently. I will say that modo is great if you are familiar and productive with Light Wave since it is very similar on a few levels.

BTW (as mentioned earlier) You can download a trail version, if you want, to find this all out for yourself www.luxology.com

#4 Thanks for the replies all.

-Keith